Guess the State

A British traveler had this to say about a state in the late 1830s:

Gentlemen who have taken the liberty to imitate the signature of other persons, bankrupts who were not disposed to be plundered by their creditors, homicides, horse stealers, and gamblers, all admired [the state in question] on account of the gentle and tolerant state of opinion which prevails there.

In 1849, a leading paper in the state admitted:

People at a distance easily come to the conclusion that [the state] is only famous for private brawls and lynchings, and the bloodiest encounters in the annals of border warfare. Consequently, a typical [citizen of the state] is pictured as a person in a semi-barbaric state, half-alligator, half-horse . . . armed to the teeth, bristling with knives and pistols, a rollicking, daredevil type of personage, made up of coarseness, ignorance, and bombast . . ..

Guess the state!